Wilbur has been hired as a new football coach at Big U University. The university gives him a huge amount of money to use as "academic scholarships". Using this money as incentives, Wilbur assembles a team consisting of stars from various high schools around the country. Based on the quality of his new players, Wilbur concludes that the new team will have to be a great team. Wilbur sees that his first game is against Little U University. Wilbur knows that Little U is a small school and has little money and hence no superstar players. Because of this, he is convinced that his team will crush Little U University in the first game of the season. So, Wilbur places a huge bet on the game.

Wilbur is horrified when several of his players get into a battle of egos in the first quarter. After that, his team's offense and defense falls apart. The Little U team works together flawlessly and wins the game by a narrow margin. After the NCAA finds out about Wilbur's bet, he has plenty of time to think about his error in reasoning.DivisionCompositionIgnoring a Common CauseAd HominemDivision: This is a wrong answer. Wilbur is not drawing a conclusion about the characteristics of the parts based on the characteristics of the whole.Composition: This is the right answer. Wilbur concluded that his team would be great simply because his players are great. However, as he found out, he did not have adequate justification for that conclusion. Further, Wilbur committed the same error when he concluded that the Little U team would not be a good team since its players were not superstars.Ignoring a Common Cause: This is a wrong answer. Wilbur is not engaging in causal reasoning so he cannot commit a causal fallacy.Ad Hominem: This is a wrong answer. Wilbur is not using an attack on a person, circumstances, etc. as evidence for (or against) a claim.Wilbur is "reasoning" about wholes and parts.2